....I'm sorry, but you lost me. How do ANY of those differ from ANOTHER PLAYER doing it? When people refer to bots having an impact on the server/game/community, they're talking about shit like running a profile in an area full of quest mobs. Sure, one person could run around and kill them all, but when a bot does it for hours on end, it really takes its toll. Also, tossing 200+ stacks of ore, herbs, etc up on the AH for stupidly cheap prices. Or running an entire party's worth of bots in a BG, and the bot you're using is total garbage. When you can tell someone's a bot, THAT is what effects the game. Not just because you had a mob stolen from you, or because someone is farming mats specifically for their/their guild's use. As I said in my first post, there are two types of botters; and the type I fit in, you'd never even know I was a botter.

It differs in the fact that you are preventing a person playing the game LEGITIMATELY from being able to pick that herb or mine that node, thus slowing down the advancement of their character. Any time you interact with an in game item you are having an 'impact' on the server (which he was claiming he wasn't), either directly or indirectly.

Don't care for those bots that don't ruin any gameplay for another player.

I wouldn't ban you considering I myself "liked" to create and test out bots in the game called Ragnarok Online.
Setting up the perfect profiles and tinkering around with it gave me much joy and more understanding of coding in general.

Anything related to bg's or farming should be auto banned tho considering they have a impact on other players.

I would report you at every opportunity and hope your main account gets banned, too. All these people here defending botting, it's sickening. There are rules, you should adhere to them or quit playing. If you break them, you face the consequences (even if you think you didn't impact the server, you did). If you do not agree with the rules, you try to have them changed, you don't simply break them.

I don't justify botting, BUT Blizzard is too ignorant to see how widely spread they are.
And I don't see people complain about various glitches in the game or bugs which made obtaining things a joke.
Some examples:
- Pet Battle character leveling. 6H to lvl 89, before one of our Pro PVP Rogue friends (not telling his name) showed it on his Livestream.
- Brawlers Guild hax: logout/login trick, various class specific tricks or ingame items which affect boss mechanics.
- Certain Class abilities, like seals being bugged and do 1 000 000 damage in 1 global, or a Monk ability which intantly kills 4 mobs in a raid.
The list can go on and on, but EVERYONE used a bug OR a bot at least once to their advantage. Don't judge others if your hands are not clean.

TLR
I have botted since vanilla on a ton of accounts. These accounts have as far as I know never had any impact on my server/battlegroup as they never interacted with other players or the game economy (let alone real money exchanges).
Is this bad? Should my bots / main still be banned? Why/why not?

So if I get this right, for curiosity's sake you made bots that just did stuff, but you never tried to sell the botted good on the AH, or participated in group play where your bot played for you?

I can't say I would really have a huge problem with your actions, although your motivations are a complete mystery to me.

That being said, if I came across one of your bots, I would happily report it (how would I be to know that you simply wanted to discard your botting proceeds?).

Gold selling activities and specifically botting to farm stuff to sell on the AH is reprehensible and ruins the fun for other players. Apart from the odd crazy like you who bots for no reason, almost all botting activity in the game has severe negative effects on other paying customers. If your account was collateral damage in the legitimate drive to stamp out problematic botting, I would not feel any pity for you.

Currently I am fighting against a goldseller who has set up shop on our server. He creates bots that farm leather. He then sells them on the AH en masse, undercutting everyone else. Why? Because he can. His objective is to be the sole supplier of leather and to make as much gold as possible from that. Because as a bot, it isn't his time being spent farming, he effectively has infinite stock and can sell as cheaply as he wants.

Sure, it's great for lazy people who want to level up leatherworking because they can now buy leather that took the farmer an hour to gather for the money they got spending 5 minutes doing dailies. But for real players who have skinners, this has basically killed our ability to earn a fair income from that profession.

Anyhow, long story short, it seems I may be finally winning the war. I almost instantly recognise when a new gold seller pawning off his "stolen" goods appears on the AH and report them as such. And I have been pretty vigilant about watching for the bots themselves. Once you become familiar with their modus operandi, it's easy to find them and report them.

I think it's now got to the stage where this horrible goldseller is spending more time levelling up his skinners to get them to the point of farming leather, than it's worth for the amount of gold he makes out it before it gets banned. The fact that I am nuking his auctioneers as well means he loses a lot of what he has farmed and proceeds thereof. Better yet, I reckon that with each cycle I am helping to lock down a few more compromised accounts - which are the life blood of any goldselling activity.

Touch wood, but it seems that after my last barrage against him nearly a week ago, he has given up. Time will tell though, and I will instantly report him if he tries again...

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Spacebot

I don't get why people hate on bots. (I can understand bg bots but besides that). All bots really do is cheapen the mats that you need yourself, making it 'easier' for you to play the game.

First off I want to thank the mods for letting the thread stay open. I know the topic is somewhat controversial but there is need for dicussion and very limited places where the community can come together and talk.

Secondly, I'm not trolling. I'm genuinely interested in you guys' opinions and think that the thread has been interesting as many standpoints have been voiced (while of course some few ppl obviously didnt bother to read any of my initial post)

Also I want to say again that I didnt do BGs with the bots, and didnt interact with other players or the AH etc. I botted purely for my own entertainment and dont regret spending the time and money (but I understand if you find that hard to believe as with any 'weird' hobby).